Morris tribune., 1887-08-03
HOW TO BE WELL.
VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM THE
PEN OF A LITERARY ATHLETE,

VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM THE
PEN OF A LITERARY ATHLETE.
Julian Hawthorne's Opinions Concerning
the Care of tho Body-Treatment OF
the mountaineering the Skin Clean.
Out Door Air-Breathing.
You can improve your physical health
and strength several hundred per cent.
without ever touching a club or dumb
bell or pulling weight. In fact, gymna-
Sums often do harm, for two reasons:
first, because of the confined air; Sec
ondly, because those who attend them do
not know what sort of work is best suited
to them and are apt to overdo the work
they undertake, thereby distorting them
selves and sapping their vitality, an ounce
of which is worth q ton of muscle" in
the long run. Too much muscle will
shorten your life; but vitality is life itself.
The stomach, the skin and the lungs are
the three essential things in human be-
ing. So long as they are in perfect order,
the finest professional gymnast can have
little to teach you. 10 keep them in
good condition, no gymnasium or gymnas-
tic apparatus Is required; still less any
pepsin pills or sarsaparilla. You can do
it all yourself, without altering your bust
ness or domestic habits, or putting your
self to any inconvenience. Quite the con-
trary. But it is extraordinary, the in
genuity some people show, when the
choice is offered them between two things
or courses, one healthy, the other I'M
healthy, but both equally available or
easy-the diabolical certainty say, with
which they fix upon that which is I'M
healthy. Whatever the metaphysical
morals of the bulk Of man and woman
kind may be, their physical morality
often seems not far removed from total
depravity. "
THE NOBLE STOMACH. 3
Take the stomach first. How many of
our average citizens can lay their hands
upon the noble organ and swear that q
week q might well say, a day. passes in
which they do not overload it with pie,
pickles and candy? And how many gallons
of strong-even green-tea and hot coffee
per annum do they drench themselves
with? AS to mastication, regularity of
meals, respect for the digestive processes,
and so forth, l say nothing After we
have ceased to stuff ourselves with trash
that has no more nourishment in it than
sawdust, and is actively injurious into the
bargain, we may begin to consider these
more elevated subjects. We hear of cru
sades against alcohol; but have no SYM
pathy with pie and candy eating and tea
and coffee drinking man or woman, who
breaches temperance or abstinence; let
them first take the beam out of their own
eye. A small quantity of alcohol admin
istered at the right time, may do good; pie
and candy and green tea never can. Alb
stain from such stuff entirely; never drink
anything hotter than blood heat. Let
your only condiments be salt and mus
tard, in moderation; eat butter sparingly,
and cheese not at all; for breakfast and
supper have bread and milk, oatmeal and
eggs; for dinner, fresh meat and vege-
tables, between half a pint of soup and q
couple of spoonfuls of light pudding.
AS TO DRINK.
AS to drink, if you are thirsty, you can
drink water; if the water is bad take
mineral water, with an occasional glass Of
pure ale or claret. Every five or ten min
utes stop and ask yourself whether you
have not had enough; and if you think you
can get along with what you have eaten, do
not take another mouthful. Never try to
''tempt" your appetite; on the contrary,
ask yourself whether you could, if neces-
sary, make your meal on pure bread and
water; and if the answer is in the mega
tive, omit that meal and see how you feel
at the neXt-but never eat between meals.
If you ate only wholesome things, you
could live and thrive on half the present
bulk of your food. Starvation is the best
cure for dyspepsia; pick me ups only keep
it alive. After you have lived on reason
able food for month or two, you will no
longer be troubled with squeamish appe-
tite. If any way practicable, you ought
to have at least half an hour in the open
air before sitting down to table; and at
any rate wash your face and arms and
chest in cool water. But I must leave the
here, with hundred things still
to be said about it.
CARE OF THE SKIN.
Now for the skin. Ninety-nine people
out of 100 never think about their skin,
though the health of all their internal or
gans depends upon it's condition. 1t is
no use washing your face and hands and
leaving the rest of your body untouched.
1t is little better to stand in front of a
basin and spatter yourself from head to
foot with water. You must cleanse every
part of your skin thoroughly once day.
am no advocate of discomfort in bathing
cold water in cold room, and all such
nonsense. Have the room warm and the
water only few degrees cooler. Stay in
the bath five minutes, keeping yourself
either under water or pouring wet all the
time. But it is after you leave the tub
that the really important part of the bath
begins. Dry yourself thoroughly with
two towels; then take a stiff flesh brush
and try with all your might to rub your
skin off. A cocoanut fiber brush is the
best; and to get at your back, it is good
plan to have cocoanut fiber mat hung
against the wall to rub yourself against.
Keep up this friction for at least ten min
utes. You could not invest the same
of time more usetully. There is
no such remedy for feverish habit as
this, nothing like it to relieve the internal
organs from undue heat and congestion of
blood and to free the lungs from oppres-
sion. Moreover, it actually increases the
size of the muscles and makes them
irmer, by causing the blood to circulate
more vigorously in them AS to it's effect
upon the elasticity and beauty of the skin
Itself, that will be obvious at glance.
THE FLESH BRUSH.
IL Is Cne DruSn, not the toilet bottle,
that furnishes the only true bloom of
youth. But the morning bath and rub
Town alone are not sufficient. If, during
;he day, you get into perspiration, do
not allow the moisture to dry on your
skin. Never come in from walk or
horseback ride or row and sit down as
you are. Go to your room, take off
and use the brush. It may
seem inconvenient at first, but when it is
lone you will rejoice, and soon it will be- |
,ome q matter of course to you. If your
is damp it is, of course,
pest to change it; but if the skin has been
brushed red you may venture to resume |
he same clothes with comparative i'm |
)unity. This friction after exercise is of |
great Importance; so much so that it may |
,e affirmed that three-fourths of the bene- |
1t of any exercise is lost without it. If |
vou foresee that it will be impossible, after |
7our exercise, to take rub down, then it |
will often be better to choose the rub |
lown instead of the exercise.
A SUNDAY BATH.
Once o week-say on Sunday, when you
AVE more tlme-vou shou1d take a. hath